It details the donations of top lobbyists embroiled in a factional struggle for influence within the Liberal Party.

And previously unpublished research reveals not only the millions of dollars that the peak bodies donate to parties but the tens of thousands made out to MPs who have become ministers, treasurers and premiers.

"It's terrifying," says Charles Livingstone, a senior public health lecturer leading the Monash University research project.

"Most people would be appalled if they realised how much money these guys are getting from what are essentially gambling dens."

Pubs and clubs lobby has been called a 'cobra in chandelier' - menacing in its very presence.Credit:Bloomberg

An interim report found Australian Hotels Association branches and ClubsNSW (the biggest of the state associations) gave declared donations of $8.5 million in the past 15 years - much of that in the past five.

The researchers also compiled a list of "major recipient" politicians whose names, campaigns or electorates appeared on disclosure forms.

Michael Photios, the AHA's lobbyist, is the leader of the dominant moderate faction of the NSW Liberal Party. Credit:Daniel Munoz

They found donations of $90,000 from the pubs and clubs linked to federal Liberal MP Kevin Andrews and the Menzies 200 Club, which supported his re-election.

Andrews, sitting in one of the safest Liberal seats, served as their gambling spokesman before the 2013 election.

The AHA donated $45,000 to Mike Baird's state electoral council in Manly.Credit:Daniel Munoz

A spokesman said "Mr Andrews does not receive donations personally" and directed questions to the Liberal Party or the Menzies 200 Club.

Donations of $80,000 were made out to Craig Laundy, a Liberal frontbencher and former publican representing Reid in western Sydney.

Donations totalling $80,000 were made out to western Sydney MP Craig Laundy by the pubs and clubs. Credit:Janie Barrett

Others were made out to former deputy premier Andrew Stoner ($60,000), former premier Barry O'Farrell ($71,000) and his successor, Mike Baird ($45,000). Federal Labor MPs Anthony Albanese, Chris Bowen, Jason Clare and Joel Fitzgibbon were all linked to donations of more than $10,000.

All donations were publicly declared. Politicians point out that even if their names or seats appear on records, the money goes straight into party accounts rather than personal ones.

But former NSW Liberal Party treasurer Michael Yabsley says parties are well aware of the names on the forms given "the duress candidates are under to raise money".

Yabsley, who retired in 2010, describes a system not obviously corrupt but ruled by "function junkies" employing a more subtle "wink and nod" influence. The biggest donors are known as "outstanding citizens" or "strong supporters of the democratic process".

"The AHA and the clubs would be rated as triple A, five-star outstanding citizens," Yabsley says. "If you want two case studies of playing the game, go no further."

Another senior political insider, associated with the AHA, says it and the clubs do not need third-party lobbyists to be in the same room facilitating meetings with politicians.

"They have a very refined and sophisticated approach to government relations," says the insider, who wishes to remain anonymous.

As long as the bodies depend on governments for favourable regulations, they remain attached by an "umbilical cord", he says.

Already, the relatively unregulated Airbnb is luring away hotel guests, lockout laws are curbing alcohol sales in several states and mobile gaming is attracting a new generation of gamblers.

In Blacktown, in Sydney's west, Simon Paterson has run the Town Tavern hotel for the past six years. After a life spent in pubs as a cellarman, doorman, barman and bar manager, he is now an owner, paying "a couple of grand" each year in fees to the AHA without complaint.

"Without the AHA and Clubs Australia," he says, "the industry would be in all sorts."

Membership affords Paterson HR support, staff training and rebates on TV subscriptions. Why, though, do some of his fees go to politicians?

"Mate, it's pretty obvious," he says. Donations "open the door to a dialogue, a conversation, networking and negotiations" with politicians who may not be "the smartest people in the world".

But recent scandals have increased pressure on politicians to shut the door on industry donations.

Labor senator Sam Dastyari resigned from the opposition frontbench last month having allowed a Chinese company to pay some of his legal and travel bills.

And this week federal Liberal MP Stuart Robert defended a speech he gave that was partly written by a significant Liberal Party donor and property developer lobbyist.

Andrew Wilkie, the anti-pokie independent from Tasmania, says he is deeply concerned by the contributions from gambling interests to individual politicians.

"I, for one, find that no better than brown paper bags of cash being handed over in other countries," he says.

Wilkie, who accepts donations but supports tighter caps, has been burned by the "enormously powerful" combination of the pubs and clubs.

When Julia Gillard's Labor Party was scrambling for his support to form government in 2010, it agreed to some of his suggestions to limit problem gambling losses at pokie machines.

But the clubs, backed by almost $900,000 in donations from the AHA, began a $3.5 million campaign to scrap the "unAustralian" changes, targeting marginal seats.

First, Labor watered down its legislation. Then, in opposition, it voted with the Coalition to dump its own modest reforms.

Xenophon says he is aware of state MPs who dare not support pokie reform for fear lobby groups might fund candidates to run against them.

He compares the AHA to "a cobra in a chandelier": menacing in its very presence. When asked about the fairness of the donations system, he quotes Clint Eastwood in the film Unforgiven.

"Fair's got nothin' to do with it."

For a lobbyist, a past as a politician has its pros and cons. For one, they may have a larger profile. But that profile can attract unwanted scrutiny in an industry built on discretion.

Perhaps the most well-known lobbyist in Canberra is the man representing the AHA, Michael Photios.

A former NSW minister, Photios is a leader of the dominant NSW moderate faction, which helped make Baird Premier and to which Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is aligned.

In 2013, then prime minister Tony Abbott banned figures such as Photios from occupying party executive positions and lobbying at the same time.

Three years on, Abbott, of the conservative faction, says he is still worried about lobbyist influence.

"Some of these factional warlords have a commercial interest in dealing with politicians whose preselections they can influence," he said in August, in what many regarded as a reference to Photios.

"Now, this is a potentially corrupt position and the best way to see off the factionalists is to open up the party."

Photios' previous lobbying company, MP Consulting, went into voluntary administration in 2010 owing the Australian Taxation Office $350,000, the ABC reported this week.

But his business prospects improved markedly over the next few years. He and partner Nick Campbell, another factional leader and former MP, added some of Australia's largest companies to their client list as Liberal governments won power.

By the 2012-13 financial year, their Premier State firm was flush enough to donate $98,426 to the federal Liberal Party.

Photios employed as his managing director Paul Nicolaou, a former top fundraiser for the Liberals' controversial Millennium Forum and a future chief executive of AHA (NSW).

Premier State – which also represents Sydney's Star casino, casino group Echo Entertainment and Justin Hemmes' hotels group Merivale – has donated a further $25,000 to the NSW Coalition.

Gambling, alcohol and tobacco interests were banned from donating to NSW election campaigns in 2010.

"Premier State donations are in accordance with the law and consistent with industry practice," Photios says. "It would be a remarkable world where government relations companies were precluded from being involved in political events. Indeed nowhere in the Western world is that the case."

There is no suggestion Premier State donates on behalf of clients.

But lobbyists represent another link in a chain that has been used to hide the provenance of donations.

Yabsley, the former lobbyist and fundraiser, says he was approached "five or six times" in a 10-year period by organisations looking for him to be a proxy.

On their websites, the pubs and clubs bodies argue that problem gamblers are a small proportion of the population, night-life violence is not linked to trading hours and the industry is already heavily regulated.

But the bodies' executives proved cagey when approached by Fairfax Media to talk about their political priorities and donations.

Josh Landis, an executive manager of ClubsNSW and Clubs Australia, said "it's legal to give and our contributions are on the record". He declined to answer further questions.

Paddy O'Sullivan, chief executive of the AHA's Victorian branch, said it "supports politicians, aspiring politicians and political parties who show an empathy for our industry and a willingness to consult".

John Whelan, the NSW chief executive, directed enquiries to his national counterpart, Stephen Ferguson, who declined an interview.

"The AHA represents more than a quarter of a million hotel employees across Australia whose voices deserve to be heard as part of the policy debate," Ferguson said in an email statement.

With so much at stake on either end of the umbilical cord, Labor and the Coalition are bound to be listening.